Links

The timely topic for this all-day event, sponsored by TSAA, is Technical Insights to Trading in a Complex Global Environment.  Featured speakers are Peter Mauthe of The (John) Mauldin Companies; Denise Shull, a widely recognized trailblazer in the psychology of risk; Michael Burke, Tradestation's VP of Client Training & Education; and Dave Landry, founder of Sentive Trading, a trading and consulting firm. The cost of the event is $150, but TSAA, the oldest society in the United States devoted to the study and development of technical analysis of stocks and commodities, is offering a $25 discount to Rick's Picks subscribers and readers. Click here for detailed information about the conference and/or to register as an affiliate and receive the $125 price.

This past Friday, Rick appeared on The Korelin Economic Report. Rick and Al took a break from financial topics this time and instead discussed the November elections. (Rick's segment is #6). Here is a transcript of that interview: Al Korelin: Okay. I’m back with Rick Ackerman. I’m going to do a little bit of a political discussion here, because politics, in my opinion, does relate directly to investing. Okay? Rick, I got a question for you. This deals with the current, with the Obama administration right now.You look at the numbers that are coming out right now. I want to start off with consumer sentiment. Consumer sentiment dropped 5.2 points down to 74.1, according to the Reuters/University of Michigan Sentiment Index that was announced on Friday. It went from 79.3 down to 74.1, okay? That is very, very negative. I think that is a major, major indication of obviously what’s going on in terms of people’s minds. You look at the gold indexes, because I think gold is a very, very accurate sentiment of consumer confidence, as is the first number we brought out. Gold continues to stay above $1600 an ounce level, okay? In spite of the fact that people are calling for gold to drop because things are starting to look so damn good, which I don’t think they are. Now in spite of this, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is not doing too bad. Now, given that scenario, how can the Obama administration possibly think that they can get re-elected? You look at the unemployment numbers that came out yesterday, they were worse, okay? 386,000, if I’m not mistaken, or something like that. Rick Ackerman: Well, I think Al that they can’t. You’ve got a trend that’s global right now, that simply wants to turn the incumbents

From our good friend Jonathan Auerbach, an inspirational note on the passing of Ray Bradbury: "Bradbury left us the other day and remember not only his simple message not to miss life and to practice it with guts and determination or as one of my personal Shakespearean favorites, Henry V, put it...'if it is a sin to covet honor, I am the most offending soul alive.' Sure, Ray treated us to magical and mythical futuristic visions but I am here to remind you that we all embrace these visions on a reality of daily material and secular events that are our version of Bradbury's 'STARS'. 25 years ago I spent time in the USSR and came away absolutely convinced that this immense portion of the world's land mass operated as a fraud and those that lived there got it and yet returning to western Europe I found everyone there still believed that the commies imminently planned overtly or covertly to take us quivering socialists in capitalist guise. "But...it is not 25 years ago, and it is not yet Fahrenheit 451, it is 2012 so take a Bradburian moment... remind yourself not to be distracted or deceived by the various complacent and orchestrated rolling fogs of politically and economically motivated obfuscation delivered by your handy hand held, the blogosphere, or the nearest surround screen...and do remind yourself that our reality is an inevitable leveling of the global playing field with hundreds of millions of new and enthusiastic players. Take a last bit of Bradbury advice...'I'll hold on the world tight some day. I've got one finger on it now, that's a beginning."

From our friend Rich Cash, here's a list of ostensibly attractive companies, the moreso because some of them are trading well off their highs. Where appropriate, I've included Hidden Pivots where we might expect a bullish turn. In some cases, the targets have been exceeded, suggesting more weakness is coming: Cummins, Inc (CMI):  89.87 (D) McKesson Corp (MCK): 88.41 (upside target; a correction is likely) Fastenal Co. (FAST): 39.19 CVS Caremark Corp (CVS) Tiffany & Co. (TIF): 51.56 McDonald's Corp (MCD): 83.60 Target Corp (TGT) Barrick Gold (ABX): 43.44 (upside target; a correction is likely) AFLAC Inc (AFL): 38.46 (just hit, exactly) CME Group Inc (CME)

'Sultan Knish,' aka blogger Daniel Greenfield, is consistently one of the best reads on the web. Although his essays usually focus on the geopolitical sphere, particularly the Middle East, his latest is a powerful indictment of a Government that would seek to impoverish and enslave us by creating artificial shortages of all things.  As he notes, "The modern...empire is dependent for its power on manufactured shortages."  To read the complete essay, click here.

In this recorded interview (no transcript available) from March 24th, Rick is joined by Patrick Cooney, CEO of Jory Capital, and Nicole Foss. In Rick's segment, he and Patrick discuss the factors in placing an accurate value on today's complex corporate stock and bond markets.

Yesterday Rick appeared on The Financial Survival Network. The audio from the appearance is available at this link. The following is a transcript of the show. Kerry Lutz: 1490 WGCH. This is Kerry Lutz. You’re listening to the Financial Survival Network. We have a roundtable today with Rick Ackerman of rickackerman.com, and we’ve got Charles Hugh Smith, who is oftwominds.com. We’re going to talk about investing, retirement funds, what you do to protect yourself against potential economic disruptions, and how you keep what little savings you might have left safe from the taxman and from potential chaotic developments in the economy. Hey Charles. Welcome to the Financial Survival Network. Charles Hugh Smith: Hi Kerry. Thanks for having me today. Kerry: Great to have you back. Great to have you back too, Rick. Rick Ackerman: Thank you Kerry. I want to say, I’ve been a fan of Charles for a long time. I want to thank you for arranging this panel discussion. I’ve always wanted to meet him. Kerry: Hey well, one day, God willing, you’ll get tom eet in person one on one. But until then, this is about the next best thing. Getting into it, Rick, this tax system is insane. We’ve got the congressional tax collectors, their designees, just looking desperate for money to keep this thing propped up. A day doesn’t go by where you hear them talking about how to effectively confiscate your IRA, your 401(k), to tax private pensions, and the like, so that they could basically prop up social security. What do you think you should do to avoid these actions from happening and damaging you? Rick: Well, Charles had a great idea. He’s, I guess you can say, running with it. The idea is to Enron Wall Street and invest local. I looked

As promised, this past Friday afternoon we selected the first winner of our weekly Rick's Picks Quarterly Subscription giveaway ($106 value). The first winner, Steve from the University of Arizona, was randomly chosen from the the member roster of our free daily newsletter. He will have full access to all of Rick's subscriber-only forecasts as well as our chat room for the next 90 days. Anyone may enter, including existing paid Rick's Picks subscribers, who will have their paid subscription extended for 90 days if they win. If you already receive our daily newsletter, you're already entered. Have you entered?

On this weekend's Korelin Economic Report, Rick and Al Korelin discussed the uses and strengths of technical analysis. The audio for this interview can be heard here. The transcript is shown below. Al Korelin: Hey, welcome in. You’re listening to a weekend special on the Korelin Economics Report. I’m Al Korelin. I appreciate you joining me. I’ve got my buddy Rick Ackerman on the line right now. Rick and I are talking about technical analysis versus fundamental analysis. We’ve had an ongoing dialogue on this particular issue over the past few weeks with you folks out there. I wanted to get Rick to weigh in on this thing, because he is truly one of the experts, as is Trader Rog. But Rick has been doing this for a long, long time. He’s made his living using technical analysis. He’s done quite well so far. My first question, Rick, would be this. Number one, let’s take as an example the week to a few months coming up here. Now, I would say from a fundamental standpoint, the potential for a significant appreciation in the price of gold and silver is very, very high. That’s from a fundamental standpoint. Why do I say that? Well, I say it because number one, Europe is literally falling apart. The odds are - in my opinion, based on fundamentals - I would say that Europe is probably going to be in worse and worse and worse shape, and possibly, very possibly, the Union, the Euro, et cetera, may collapse. That would have a huge impact on an upward movement in the price of gold and silver. Now, fundamentals tell me the same thing is true in the United States. That’s why I remain bullish on gold and silver. How does technical analysis, Rick, relate to